With the advent of the Internet, and, more recently, the proliferation of smartphones, e-commerce has become a preferred method of shopping for many individuals. In addition to the inherent convenience of being able to view and purchase items without having to travel to a physical store, there are many items (digital music and video downloads, for example) that are only available for purchase within an e-commerce framework.
Traditionally, credit cards have been the preferred payment method for e-commerce transactions. In most transactions, the user selects an item to purchase (placing it, figuratively, into a virtual ‘shopping cart’), and then the user finalizes the transaction by providing his/her credit card number/information, billing information (generally a mailing address) and shipping information (also generally a mailing address), based upon which the seller can process the payment and ship/deliver the item.
Despite the convenience provided by standard e-commerce systems, several critical shortcomings remain. Firstly, presently available e-commerce systems are not conducive to enabling children to initiate and perform e-commerce transactions. This is due in part to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) (15 U.S.C. §§6501-6506), which imposes strict limitations upon the ability of a website to solicit personal information from individuals under the age of 13. In light of COPPA, children under 13 must obtain the permission of a parent/guardian (and such permission must be documented) in order to engage in e-commerce transactions. Due to the burdensome requirements that COPPA entails, many, if not most, e-commerce retailers (in addition to many parents/guardians) simply choose to avoid transactions with users under 13 entirely, and instead suggest that the parent/guardian themselves perform the purchase on behalf of the child. In addition, many children over the age of 13 are still precluded from engaging in e-commerce because a) they generally do not have their own credit cards, and b) because many sites and sellers will not do business with a child younger than 18.
A related problem exists within the realm of content/items that are available for purchase from a given e-commerce retailer. It can be readily appreciated that there are many items that are available for purchase on the Internet (for example, movies and video games) which a parent/guardian would not want his/her child to purchase. Presently, such a parent/guardian must personally review any e-commerce activity of the child in order to ensure that the child is not attempting to purchase an item that is not age appropriate or that the parent does not want the child to purchase. In addition, given the rapid changes in popularity trends, especially in items that appeal to children, parents/guardians may not be familiar with the item that the child wishes to purchase, and the parent/guardian may have no choice but to perform additional research on the product in order to determine whether it is age appropriate for the child or not.
In a similar vein, various frameworks exist wherein one entity (such as an administrative office of a government) provides certain financial benefits to one or more individuals. These benefits (such as food stamps) are generally accompanied by significant usage restrictions, dictating that the receiving individuals can only use the provided benefits at certain stores and, more importantly, only on certain products and/or classes of products. In light of these restrictions, such benefits are generally not accepted by e-commerce vendors, thus requiring those individuals receiving the benefits to visit physical retail establishments in order to use the benefits.
Moreover, it is well known that many individuals who attempt to comply with dieting regimens are unsuccessful. This lack of success can be attributed in part to a lack of self-control when purchasing food. Because existing payment methods such as credit cards do not restrict the ability of a user to purchase certain items, many individuals who attempt to diet ultimately fail because they are permitted to purchase foods that do not comply with their dieting requirements. The same holds true for various other addictions and/or vices such as smoking.
Finally, with respect to practically all current e-commerce transactions, potential buyers are generally required to manually input a complete set of purchasing information (generally including at least the buyer's credit card information, billing address, and shipping address) to each e-commerce retailer that the buyer wishes to purchase from, at least at the first point of contact with the retailer. The result of the present arrangement is that the buyer must manually enter substantially the same information each time he/she visits a new e-commerce retail site, resulting in a signification duplication of effort.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure made herein is presented.